


how the mighty have fallen

by hinatatas



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: AU, Gen, Spoilers for Chapters 1 and 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-02
Updated: 2013-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-25 10:03:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/951795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hinatatas/pseuds/hinatatas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As his crystallized eyelashes flutter shut, Byakuya Togami does not apologize. He despairs.</p><p>(AU for Togami's unused execution)</p>
            </blockquote>





	how the mighty have fallen

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on an impulse because Togami's potential execution struck me as one of the most cruel, and I thought it would be interesting to write it from his perspective. There are some minor descriptions of violence and blood, but nothing too graphic. I hope I did this idea justice!

As a part of the world's most wealthy conglomerate, Byakuya Togami always wins.

He's triumphed over his fourteen siblings to become the Togami heir. He's succeeded in making billions off the stock market. He's mastered five foreign languages to better communicate with businessmen from around the world. He carries himself with the utmost confidence, a soaring pillar of perfection towering above the filthy, untalented masses.

That's why he knows, from the second that Monobear makes the first announcement, that he alone will win the game of mutual killing.

He's hardly impressed with how the first two trials progress. The killer in the first case is painfully obvious, and his hands twitch at the prospect of striking everyone in that excuse for a courtroom for being so incredibly, _pathetically_ slow.

But he doesn't. He has more control over himself than that.

The second trial leaves him a bit shaken, but really, Oowada was such a buffoon that he was bound to slip up at some point. Togami had just tried to make things a bit more interesting, and the only reason the "investigation duo" saw through that was because of Oowada's careless comment about the blue of a jersey.

That's what he tells himself to save his pride, anyway.

But he knows he shouldn't underestimate them _so_ much, and that's why he decides to kill after the next motive is revealed.

He doesn't kill for the money, no; such a paltry amount would barely make a dent in his bank account. But that's precisely _why_ this motive is perfect, because who would expect Byakuya Togami, the most successful and rich young mind alive, to murder someone for money he'd declared to have no interest in?

And no one expects Kirigiri of all people to show up dead.

Of course, she's the person that Togami holds the most respect for (which still isn't much), but business is business; it's kill or be killed, and he certainly doesn't intend to die anytime soon. Fukawa agrees with him on this matter and is easily coerced into being an accomplice. Though she's not good for much, Togami knows her delusional, romanticized view of the world will at least prevent her from betraying her "love interest."

The trial comes quickly, and Naegi still seems to have trouble pulling himself together over the death of someone he barely knew. It's pitiful, really. With he and Kirigiri out of commission, Togami pins the whole thing on Fukawa using evidence they fabricated together, and everyone accepts it because they're so desperate and because of _course_ the serial killer murdered someone, that's the textbook answer, who else could kill the unshakable Kirigiri whose posture never slackened, whose eyes never stopped searching for the truth, whose words always snapped everyone in the right direction as easily as breaking a neck, _crack_...

But that damned gambler has to speak up and ruin everything.

 _Isn't it funny how Fukawa is so willing to give in,_ she says, _and would she really do that for anyone other than her beloved Togami?_

Naegi's shoulders tense, as if coming to a realization, and everyone waits in silence as he takes longer than usual to put the pieces together.

\---

Before Togami goes to his execution, he holds his head high and says one thing to Fukawa alone.

_I'm disappointed._

As fat tears stream down her clammy cheeks and patter gently on his sleeve, he wrenches his arm from her and walks away.

He never notices that others in the courtroom have teared up, as well.

\---

The gavel pounds onto the red button, and Togami is suddenly falling into a sea of fire that burns his fine clothes away to rags. He lands in a dumpster, and the impact knocks the air from his lungs so he's looking up, up, up into the blood red sky and gasping like a fish and tasting nothing but sulfur.

Of course, the mastermind wouldn't make his execution that quick, and Togami is soon able to breathe the tainted air. He climbs to his feet, tries to make the rags on his body cover as much skin as possible, and looks around.

A rock hits him between the eyes, cracking his expensive frames in half. He hears a familiar cackle, and even after casting his glasses aside, he can make out the black and white figure well enough to offer it a defiant snarl. 

Another rock knocks out one of his bared teeth.

He shakes with barely-contained rage, climbing from the pile of garbage to walk up to Monobear and holding both bare arms up against the assault. Once the blurry figure has come into focus, Togami spits his bloody tooth into the toy's face.

Sirens wail. _Violence against the headmaster is forbidden. Violence against the headmaster is forbidden. You will be disciplined._

Togami doesn't care. He's going to die anyway, so he may as well fight.

(And somewhere, he hears his father yelling, _No, you can't die yet, boy, you must carry on the Togami name, you mustn't die..._ )

More Monobears rise from the depths of this hell, and Togami stands in the midst of the army, hands shaking only slightly. More rocks come, and Togami runs. More scratches, more lost teeth, more and more his pride slips away as he darts toward an icy plain that freezes the blood oozing from his mouth, his chest, arms, legs...

He looks around for something, anything on the horizon, but all he sees is white. His bare feet feel like blocks of ice, each one taking a tremendous effort to lift until he wonders if it's even worth it anymore and _are you late because you forgot how to walk Naegi you have to alternate your right and left legs..._

He hears the wind carrying the voices of his classmates, and whether their words are fake or not doesn't matter; he clings to them in this desolate wasteland even as his skin freezes, as fingers of frost paw at his chest and neck, trying to stop his heart and crush his lungs.

He hears Fukawa repeating his name like an echo, Togami, _Togami,_ Byakuya, _Byakuya,_ don't go, _no, don't go, please..._

He hears Naegi, _he killed my best friend, my best friend in this place, but I thought he had some good in him, I thought, I thought..._

He hears Kirigiri, _don't overestimate yourself,_ she'd said, blood painting her porcelain neck, _don't trivialize the emotions of others,_ she'd said, cold eyes glazing over. 

A numb hand slaps itself over his chest, trying to reserve any warmth at his core, but he realizes that he'd already lost that a long time ago.

Finally, Togami falls to his knees in the snow, not even feeling the cold pooling around his legs. His heart slows to a murmur, _are you sure you want to keep going, I don't think you can, just lie down here..._

He does, one pallid cheek meeting the snow without resistance. His arms lie curled underneath him, trying to hold on to some warmth, any at all, but it's gone, it's gone.

His last words aren't "I'm sorry." He's always thought it pathetic how people in cheap movies apologize at the moment of their deaths, as though it would change anything. No, Byakuya Togami hasn't prepared any profound last words simply because he wasn't expecting to die so soon.

His cracked, frostbit lips pry open, and he takes in a final lungful of brisk air.

He says, "I lost."


End file.
